The White Towers
by The Liquid Moon
Summary: A. U. Kai Takao Yuriy Daichi A threeyear journey through Takao and Daichi’s life in their boarding school – where their lives will be forever altered in ways neither could have ever imagined.


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**The White Towers**

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**Disclaimer:** This piece of fanfiction based on Beyblade uses characters from the anime created by Takao Aoki – I claim no ownership of the recognizable characters. No infringement intended.

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**Summary:** (A. U.) (Kai - Takao) (Yuriy - Daichi) A three-year journey through Takao and Daichi's life in their boarding school – where their lives will be forever altered in ways neither could have ever imagined.

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**Chapter 1**

-x-

"More stinking first-years," said the redhead leaning against the railing of the gallery overlooking the grounds between the North Dorm and the school building.

The boy lazing on an easy-chair beside him opened a glaring crimson eye. "You'll get to see enough of them once you get back to East. Why do you want to sully your mood from now on?"

"I'm bored."

His companion made no reply and a few moments later, it seemed as if he had fallen asleep. Yuriy Ivanov was used to his apathetic nature and as such, was not offended by his nonchalance. He looked up at the cloudy sky, trying to gauge how long it would be before it started raining again. It was colder than usual, even for Tohoku where the boarding school, White Towers, was located. It was a scenic setting, but Yuriy would rather have attended some school closer to the city. Days like this didn't really serve to take his mind off his past.

"It'll rain soon – you might want to go inside."

Again, he received no reply to his comment. Picking up a couple of books lying on the floor beside him, he went inside.

-x-

"Okay... 2B... that's my room," said Kinomiya Takao, panting as he deposited his bags in front of the door. "You're in 2C, aren't you, Kyouju? Kyouju?"

Takao rolled his eyes as he saw his friend was still at the other end of the corridor. He had twice the amount of luggage Takao carried and according to Takao, not half his strength. Takao went over to help his friend.

"A...ari...gat...ooo... Takao..." panted out Kyouju as he handed over two of his bags to Takao.

"What the hell have you brought here? All of your rock collection or something?" asked Takao once they had put the bags in the room and were seated inside.

"I thought it would be good thing... bring all the books, you know... so I don't have to rely on the library much…"

Takao looked disbelievingly at him and then at the bags. "_Are you kidding_? I cannot read this much all my life... do they really expect us to read all that this semester? I didn't know that!"

"I've got some extra stuff."

Takao rolled his eyes as he fell back on the bed. Trust Kyouju to make things seem harder than they are. Most probably, _all_ of it was extra stuff.

"I don't believe that I am in an elite school," said Takao after a while, "if it wasn't for that Beyblade scholarship..."

"You'll be fine!"

Takao smiled slightly. "I guess... it scares me a bit though..." He looked at the pile of books that Kyouju had begun to take out from his bag. "I just hope that I am not the only one who thinks you go overboard with studying."

Kyouju laughed. "Hey, don't worry! I know you will do your best – and that's what is important, right?"

Takao sat up, his face brighter. "Yeah, I'll do my best – very _best_... if not anything, at least I'll be the best Beyblader at White Towers!"

"That's the spirit," cheered Kyouju, "you should go and unpack your things now. I think the dinner is served in an hour – and after that the dorm leader will probably list out extra-duty and all. Then you would have no time but to prepare for tomorrow's class! And..."

"All right, Kyouju!" interrupted Takao, patting the brown-haired boy, who was already working himself into quite a state. "Like you said, things will be fine! _Just_ _chill out_!"

-x-

Takao had begun unpacking for some of his best friend's anxiety had made way even into his mind. However, he was soon distracted by the glorious view of the distant mountains from the French windows. His room was in the second dorm building labelled 'East Dorms'. As he walked out into the balcony, he wondered what kind of a person his room-mate was. The card over the one with his name read _Ivanov Yuriy_... that was definitely not a Japanese name. He'd put it at Russian. It would be exciting to have a foreign student as his room-mate. Hadn't Kyouju said that one of the school sponsors was also Russian? Takao wondered if they were somehow related.

The pleasant drizzling had turned into cold rain but Takao stood gazing out with unseeing eyes, deeply lost in his thoughts. He was already beginning to miss Gramps a lot. He almost wished that he hadn't won the Tournament and gotten this scholarship. Honestly, he hadn't been playing for the scholarship... it was just an added bonus. His cardinal rule while Beyblading was to play the game for the sake of the game – it was most important to play in the right spirit and have fun. He considered his bit-beast, _Dragoon_, not as a winning tool, but as his partner and best friend. Deep down, he knew that it was one of the most important reasons of his victory.

Lost in his misery, he did not notice the door open and shut.

"Hey you! What are doing out there?"

Startled, he turned back hurriedly.

Stormy violet eyes swept over his now drenched clothes and hair - "Didn't you notice the rain?" asked the older boy, running his fingers through his bright red hair.

"Ano... I was thinking about something," said Takao, smiling sheepishly and deciding to ignore the patronizing tone of his senpai's voice. If he was going to stay with this guy for three semesters, then he might as well begin on friendly grounds.

Yuriy deposited the books he had been carrying on a low table between their futons and sat down at his desk. "Whatever. Just don't get water over my things."

Takao was glaring a hole at the back of his head, but restrained himself and smiled out an agreeable, "Hai."

"It's Ivanov-senpai for you."

"Gomenasai... Ivanov-senpai."

_'What a nasty person! He didn't even introduce himself properly. I hope you have better luck than me, Kyouju,' _thought Takao as he picked up his towel and a change of clothes and went out.

Yuriy dropped his pen and leaned back in his chair. A small smirk had almost made way to his face when the door burst open and the dripping boy was back.

"Couldn't you be less noisy?"

Yuriy's eyes followed the first-year's movements as he rummaged in his bag. A muffled sound came from his direction, which, Yuriy supposed, was to pass for his apology.

"Stupid little punk," murmured Yuriy as the door banged shut behind the long-haired boy.

He got up and retrieved a single page of the newspaper from one of his books.

"Kinomiya Takao, Junior Beyblade Champion, huh?" He seemed absorbed in staring at the picture of Takao giving a high five to a smallish redheaded boy while a messy brown-haired boy looked on. "Kinomiya... This should be interesting. Beyblade scholarship? I bet that's just a lousy excuse for why you are here – and put in a room with me. But you aren't gaining anything by it, boy. Nope, you aren't."

Putting the paper in an envelope, he pulled out his letter-pad. He had hardly written a sentence when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in."

It was the brown-haired boy from the picture. "_Sumi-masen_… isn't Takao here?"

"He's gone to bathe."

Kyouju looked dubious but accepted the explanation and closed the door.

Yuriy looked thoughtfully at the door for some time before returning to his letter.

-x-

It was almost an hour later that Takao returned from his bath. Although the showers had been empty, he had lingered longer, feeling angry, gloomy and generally depressed. It wasn't until he heard some boys enter the bathroom that he hurriedly washed the soap off his body and dried himself. As he was halfway to his room, he heard Kyouju call out his name.

"Takao! Where have you been? I was searching all over for you! But then Zeo and I went to the cafeteria without you."

"Gomen... I was bathing."

"For an hour? Oh well, never mind... Hey, Zeo... this is Kinomiya Takao... Takao, Zeo – my room-mate. He's a first-year, too."

Zeo, who was almost as tall as Takao but had even longer hair, smiled at him. "You're the Japan's Beyblade Champion, aren't you? Good to meet you!"

"Good to meet you, too, Zeo. Oh man, I can't believe that I missed dinner!"

"It seems that some students are still to arrive – you're lucky, the cafeteria will remain open for another two hours."

"All right! I must hurry then!"

"You'll need your raincoat, though. It is in the staff building beyond the North Dorms. Shall we come with you?"

"Nah... I'll be fine. I know you want to get back to your computer, Chief. Anyway, I've got to rush now! See you guys later!"

-x-

Yuriy was nowhere to be seen when Takao returned. Takao didn't like his room-mate at all.

'_Why couldn't have had a first-year for a room-mate?_' he thought sullenly. '_I thought he'd try to be extra pleasant or something since he is a foreigner and all but he's plain nasty! Stupid, nasty foreigners! I hate them all!'_

The thought of dinner cheered him up a bit. When he went downstairs, almost everyone seemed to be returning. It was raining hard and just as Takao stepped out of the building, a flash of lightning blinded him. He pulled his raincoat closer about him, wishing that he had worn a sweater. However, his hair was still wet from the bath and wet sweaters were probably the most uncomfortable and itchy things in the world.

He stopped for a while in front of the North Dorms. This building faced the main school building and was the only dorm visible from the entrance grounds. It seemed older than the one in which his room was and eerily lonesome... there were few windows through which light shone now and even the porch was dark.

As he looked up, he thought he could make out a lone figure looking down from the second-floor balcony. The rain fell hard in his face, making it impossible for him to keep looking up for more than a few seconds. He wondered if it was some lonely first-year like him wishing that he could go home. He shielded his eyes with a hand and looked up again. This time he was positive that the person was looking down directly at him. It was dark and he had no explanation but his own gut feeling. There was a flash of lightning and for a moment the boy's face lit up – he was positive that the person was looking down towards him now although he could hardly make out his features.

The cold and hunger, and heavy rain made him look down and continue towards the cafeteria. A strange feeling had settled over him though... it felt as if he had seen the boy somewhere – although he hadn't actually been able to 'see' the boy's face in that flash of lightning.

-x-

Few tables were occupied and Takao forgot his gloominess for a while as he busied himself with food. The cafeteria was huge – he could hardly make out the people sitting at the other end of the hall. But then, it was the only cafeteria of the high school and with so many students, its size was self-explanatory.

He had just dug into his chocolate pie, when a young boy dragged a chair from a nearby table to his and plopped down on it.

"YOU ARE LATE, TAKAO! I FELL ASLEEP WAITING FOR YOU! WHERE WERE YOU? I'M HUNGRY!"

Takao froze mid-bite and looked up sullenly.

"What the hell are you doing here, boy? GET LOST!"

"I'm hungry, Takao!"

"Eat in your own cafeteria! Boys from middle school aren't allowed here – you are going to get punished even before the school's begun, Daichi! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? THAT'S _MY_ PIE!"

However, Daichi paid no heed to Takao as he grabbed a spoon, leant over the table and in the blink of an eye, had the plate with the pie firmly secured in his left arm. He dug in with jealous greed and had half-finished it by the time Takao had gotten around to his side of the table and began tugging at the plate.

"Let go! You already ate your main course! I haven't eaten anything!"

"What the hell! Buy your own food, you glutton! Give that back to me!"

"No! Takao – let me have it!"

"_Peace, boys – there are others in here besides you."_

Takao, who was the first to hear the voice, let go of the plate and turned towards the speaker. Daichi, having eyes for nothing but food, completely ignored the teacher who had chanced upon them.

Takao flushed as the teacher's dark eyes silently questioned him. "Gomen nasai, sensei. Boku wa… ano…" He cast a furtive, exasperated glance at Daichi, who was busy finishing up the sweet.

"Enjoy your meal," said the teacher, adjusting his rimless glasses. "But without such noise, please."

"Hai, sensei – gomen nasai."

Takao could only look on with boiling anger as Daichi proceeded to finish up his fruit-salad, still surprisingly unaware of the attention he had attracted. The older boy stared hard at the salt and pepper tray on the table, cursing his fate. He could have spent his last three years of schooling comfortably in Bey City, but, no! He had to follow Kyouju to this stupid school. That much was still okay. Why did this little monkey have to get the scholarship, too? Granted that he was his partner, but it was not by choice… it was just chance. The stupid little nutcase had always kept pestering him for a Beybattle as and when possible. For one match, Takao was in desperate need of someone with Beyblading skills at par with his. There had been no option but Daichi at that short a notice. Top Beyblader or not, Daichi was a pain the ass. Takao hated the fact that he had shared his title and reward. He hated the fact that he had tagged along instead of going back to his village, as he had said he would after the tournament.

"Thanks for the meal, Takao! See you tomorrow! I breakfast at eight, remember that!"

Takao's hands balled into fists but he kept his calm. Stupid Daichi! Stupid school! Stupid Ivanov! Stupid everybody!

'_I want to go home.'_

-x-

He stopped again as he came to the 'North Dorms'. All lights were off in this building now – he had an eerie feeling that he won't have noticed the building at all if he hadn't previously known of its existence. He strained his eyes against the rain, looking up to see if the boy – the one he felt he had seen somewhere before – was still there. He had been trying to recall where he might have seen someone from an elite school like this. None of his friends were from that sort of society. He had never known people of that sort in his life. Then why did he feel that he had seen that boy somewhere before?

Had that boy recognized him, too? He must also have seen his face in the lightning? Had he also had the feeling that they had met somewhere before?

Instinctively, Takao decided to take a small detour. He hesitated for only a moment before entering the 'North Dorms'. Why he felt so driven to see that boy, he couldn't tell. He felt as if it was right there somewhere in his memory – only annoyingly misplaced, He took off his dripping mackintosh and shoes. There was no one about. _Even if there had been someone_, he thought, _I'd have just said that I am a first-year and new around here. Who'd know where my room really was?_

As he alighted on the second floor, he looked with mounting perplexity at the rows of closed doors in the dimly lighted corridor.

_This was a stupid idea, Takao! You can't bloody well go knocking at each and every one… and even if I do that, I don't remember his face… I would know it was him if I saw him, I think… but I cannot be sure._

But he was not ready to give up. He had to see that boy once – he felt it was the only way to remember why it bothered him so much. The look on his face…

Takao closed his eyes for a moment. Hate – unbridled, ardent hate – had been scrawled boldly across his face. It made Takao uneasy to know that it was all directed against him. Hell, it made him more than uneasy. It bothered him to the point of annoyance.

-x-

The rain still fell in noisy torrents. Recurrent thunder and lightning only added to the deafening clamour. Takao didn't hear him coming although his healed boots normally made an authoritative 'tack' against the floor as he moved down the hall. Moreover, he didn't even hear him when he asked who he was. Exasperated, he stepped closer and brought a glove-covered hand to the boy's thin shoulder, wincing slightly as his midnight blue hair brushed against hand and moisture rapidly soaked into them.

Takao started and backed away, turning to face him simultaneously.

There it was again… that hate… hate he must feel for him, Takao… why? Why him?

"What are you doing here?"

"WHAT?" yelled Takao. A concurrent thunder had shielded the question.

"What are you doing here?" repeated the boy, not deigning to raise his voice above its normal volume, only expressing his displeasure at Takao's doing the contrary by adding a sneering tone to his question the second time.

"I was…" Takao faltered. _Searching for you… I was searching for you… I wanted to ask you why you look at me like that… I want to know where I've seen you before… Because… because I don't like it when you look at me that way._

"You aren't from these dorms, are you? What are you doing here then? Juniors aren't supposed to come here – find out all the rules before you go around breaking them, boy!"

Takao felt his anger return. What was with the people around here? Why were they all so rude? Was it some sort of elite custom – be rude? This person… he spoke Japanese much the same way Ivanov-sempai had. Were there only foreigners here or something? For he knew, he won't be surprised if he had landed in the wrong place.

"I can report you for breaking the curfew and sneaking in here," said the boy, running his fingers through his hair.

_Searching for him… why the hell was I searching for him?_

"And I will…"

Takao could hear the pause. He knew there was more to come.

"Unless you are able to defeat me at a Beybattle – one on one, right now."

Beybattle… of course! Takao remembered it quite well now.

It was after he had won the Championship. He stood grinning widely at his fans as the reporters drowned him with congratulations and questions – after all, he had not even lost one match of the Tournament – a spotless victory. He had seen him then – their eyes had met quite by chance. Takao had felt the same stark hatred shadow his euphoria even though a moment later, the crimson-eyed boy had turned away and was lost in the crowd. But his jubilation has eventually taken over again and it felt as if that moment had never happened and was something out of a nasty, bleakly remembered dream.

"Beybattle, huh?" said Takao, his hand moving to pull out his launcher, "Well, come on – I can defeat you easily enough! You will be a goner even before you knew what hit you!"

"I suppose you have to cling on to over-confidence if you don't have any genius. Let's make this interesting – if you are defeated, you aren't just going to get detention – you will go back to where you came from. You will leave this place immediately. You can forfeit and get only detention, too."

"I don't know what your problem is, dude, but I am not scared of any challenge you throw my way!"

"You'll be sorry you're not."

_Why? What have I done to you? Why do you hate me so much?_

-x-

_He's good._

Takao didn't know how long it had been since they had started their match. A few students stood behind Kai – not cheering him, but simply watching on with interest. It was easy to deduce, from the condescending glances they threw at Takao, that they believed that Kai would emerge the winner. Takao ignored them. He hardly noticed them. He had eyes only for the Beyblades as they spun and battled along the length of the corridor. Takao knew, as 'Dranzer' (at least that was what he had heard his opponent address his blade as) skilfully eluded an attack, that he wasn't the only one with a very powerful bit-beast here.

Takao attacked again – as ruthlessly as he could for he wanted to see the bit-beast.

_This is interesting. This is very good. Man, I haven't battled this way in ages. I could teach Daichi quite a few things!_

The longer the match carried on, the more doubts the on-lookers had about one of their own winning. While Kai played with very intelligent and powerful techniques, there was an unpredictability about the younger boy's moves which couldn't be roped in with any of his strategies. Moreover, Dranzer's master had almost lost his calm the last time he had suffered an attack. It was an obvious sign that he had not expected the match to be so tough.

_Finally…_

It was such a magnificent sight that Takao almost forgot about the match for a moment. His challenger had finally summoned the bit-beast and Takao knew that he had been right in assuming that Dranzer's powers could rival his Dragoon's. As such, he lost no time in calling upon his bit-beast.

He had never battled a bit-beast as strong as Dranzer before. It was really beginning to worry him now. He had forgotten all about the bet placed on the match – he only wanted to win the game for the sake of winning. It would be his best victory ever if he was able to defeat this guy.

_Oh no!_

Even as he heard the command to Dranzer and saw the red phoenix claw down on Dragoon, he knew that his reaction was a second too late.

_I don't want to lose…_

… and Dranzer missed Dragoon completely and abruptly faded away as its Beyblade rolled to a stop.

"What… what's going on?"

It took him some moments to remember where he was and what was going on around him. The corridor, unlike when they had begun the match, was now flooded with fluorescent light. There were a lot more people surrounding them than he remembered.

The most important thing was that there was a Beyblade spinning where two completely different ones had been before and Takao realized that it was the same one which had attacked Dranzer without a warning and thrown it off balance, crashing into the wall.

"It's illegal to battle in the corridors. As a prefect, surely you must know that rule, Hiwatari-san?"

Takao glanced between the two Prefects – he supposed that both were Prefects, else, the boy… Hiwatari… won't have listened to him without protest. Hiwatari… at least now he knew his name.

"You'll be sorry, Kon."

His voice oozed venom but his demeanour was collected. Pocketing his Beyblade, he strode away without a glance at him.

Kon turned towards him.

"Go back to your dorm, Kinomiya."

Takao, who had been staring after Hiwatari, started. How did that guy know his name?

Kon smiled as Takao looked dubiously at him. "Beyblade is a pretty popular sport here, too, you know. The news leaked out that Kinomiya Takao would be joining the White Towers this year onwards. A lot of people have been waiting to meet you." There were murmurs of assent. "However," Rei glanced at the students, "since it is after curfew and everyone ought to be in their rooms, I think that it could be put off till tomorrow, right? Because it could spell trouble otherwise…" Although he was smiling, there was steely finality in his voice. The students dispersed immediately.

"Rei Kon – second year. Call me Rei. I am sorry I had to stop your match that way," said Rei, as he put off the tube-lights. "But your match was growing way too aggressive. You might have brought the building down with the sheer power of your battle."

"Not really!"

"Yeah, seriously. I'll have quite a hard time explaining this peeling wallpaper and cracks, you know. I'm going to leave it to Hiwatari. That one causes way too much trouble for a Prefect, a very bad role-model indeed."

Rei ran his finger down a black line in the wall – Takao noticed that it was indeed a crack.

"So next time, remember that corridors aren't the ideal Bey-dishes, okay?"

"Oh man! I've hardly gotten here and…"

"Don't worry. Hiwatari isn't going to squeal on you. This isn't the first time that he has summoned his bit-beast in the corridor."

"NO WAY!" Takao looked scandalized. "I'm not going to let him take all the blame and hide like a coward! It's my mistake, too and I…"

Rei looked steadily at him. "Hiwatari won't do it out of kindness of heart, Kinomiya, so don't feel obliged in any way. If you get involved with this – and destroying school buildings is serious stuff – you'll be in a very bad mess… it's kind of hard to explain. There's a lot of politics going on within this school. The Headmaster… oh well, just maintain a low profile, okay. No matter what reason has brought you here… just maintain a low profile."

Takao was confused. He didn't quite understand what Rei was trying to imply. But he felt that it would be very odd to ask him that, so let it pass.

"All… right," he said at last.

"Well, go back quickly now and pretend as if nothing happened. Don't mention this to anyone!"

"Okay…"

"And, Kinomiya?"

"Yeah?

"You owe me a match – tomorrow after the last class!" said Rei, winking.

Takao grinned, and as he stepped out into the rain again, called out, "You're on!"

-x-

Even the prospect of going back to his sour roommate didn't diminish the surge of excitement and positive energy that his match with Hiwatari had left him. A part of Takao even wondered if he could have 'won' the match if Rei hadn't interfered. He wanted to assure himself that he would. He wanted to battle Hiwatari again. Yes, that was what he wanted.

_Why does he hate me, though? Why does he look at me like that?_

It irked him to feel that he was the on the receiving end of his hatred. Takao had never been on the receiving end of anyone's hatred, as far as he could remember. He had always been popular among his friends and had always won fans with his Beyblading skills and good nature. It had always been a wonderfully happy world for him.

His dorm building was far silent than when he had left it. He couldn't wait to tell Kyouju about Dranzer. He won't tell him his curiosities about Hiwatari, though. No, he was too embarrassed about them to be able to mention it to anyone. Although Kyouju was such a genius… he could easily find out something about Hiwatari that could give Takao a clue as to why he was subject to his loathing. But no, he won't make any special mention of Hiwatari.

Thankfully, Ivanov was asleep when he reached the room. He had no idea how he was going to put up with the egoistic redhead. He would hang out with Kyouju and Zeo… or make the Beyblading Training Rooms his abode.

He stood near the French windows as he dried his hair, looking out at the stormy.

He was so far away from home… Gramps would be missing him. His friends would be missing him. The dojo, the koi in the pond… everything would be missing him. But he was sure that they couldn't possibly miss him more than he missed them. But fate had brought him here and he was going to stay here. He had never really worried about the future, but then again, his future had never seemed more out of control before. He had imagined attending the local high school and Beyblading with his friends after homework every evening – like he had always.

_I wonder if I'd have met Hiwatari then._

This unknown future he had ended up in excited him a bit now. He was looking forward to the next day. He was going to do his best at everything and enjoy himself.

As he snuggled under the covers and curled on his side, Takao's last thought before he fell was that he had never enjoyed himself as much as he had battling Hiwatari… he couldn't wait to do that again.

**-x-**

**Author's Notes:**

_Tohoku_ – I am not sure if Tohoku is a plausible situation for a boarding-school. However, from my readings it seemed to suit the environment and scenery I needed. Of course, my imagination played a very dominant role in the interpretation of all texts. I will be keeping Tohoku as the place where _The White Towers_ is located regardless of any future information.

-x-


End file.
